1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information device such as a cellular phone having a function for combining images.
2) Description of the Related Art
Portable telephone (hereinafter “cellular phone”) with built-in camera has appeared in the market. This cellular phone has a possibility of being able to realize advanced communications that the cellular phones without the built-in camera have not been able to realize. As a result, it is expected that the cellular phones with built-in camera will become more popular and widely used.
The cellular phone with a built-in camera has a function for transmitting an image, for example, a photograph of a face of a person, to another cellular phone as an attachment to an email. Some cellular phones also have a function to process the image, for example, to compresses or trim the image. The original image or the processes image may be used as an idle image (i.e., an image displayed on the idle screen).
When an image of face of one person is transmitted to the other person, it is possible to convey the face or expressions on the face of the one person to the other person, and realize better communications between the users. However, since the data quantity of the image handled by the cellular phones is high, usually about 8 KB, it exerts a great burden on the communication lines, and sometimes real-timeness of the communications is lost.
Moreover, as the data quantity of the image exerts a great burden on the mail servers, some Internet providers even tend to prohibit transmission of images among the users. As a result, the users loose the opportunity to communicate with each other using images.
Furthermore, using of an illustration or an image of a face as the idle image was know even before a cellular phone with a built-in camera appeared in the market. In other words, the advantages of the built-in camera in the cellular phone have not been fully utilized.